sfeld--really a good judge--said in _The
Athenaeum_ that 'the work is a pearl of genius,' and that William Bodham
Donne declared that 'the language and rhythm are vastly superior to
Macaulay's _Lays of Ancient Rome_.' As to _The Sleeping Bard_ Borrow
himself was able to make his own vigorous defence of that work. In
emulation of Walter Scott he reviewed himself in _The Quarterly_.[251]
His article is really an essay on Welsh poetry, and incidentally he
quotes from his unpublished _Celtic Bards, Chiefs and Kings_ a lengthy
passage, the manuscript of which is in my possession. We are introduced
again to all Borrow's old friends of _Wild Wales_: Hew Morris, Goronwy
Owen, and finally Elis Wyn. Borrow quotes from _The Romany Rye_, but as
becomes a reviewer of his own book, gives no praise to his achievement.

I find no plays among Borrow's 'mountains of manuscript' in my
possession, and so I am not disposed to accept the suggestion that the
following letter from Gifford to Borrow refers to a play which Borrow
pretended to be the work of a friend while it was really his own. If it
was his own he doubtless took Gifford's counsel to heart and promptly
destroyed the manuscript:--

To George Borrow, Esq.

_A Specimen of Gifford's criticism on a friend's_ play, _which
I was desired to send to him_.

MY DEAR BORROW,--I have read your M.S. very attentively, and
may say of it with Desdemona of the song--

'It is silly, sooth,
And dallies with the innocence of love
Like to old age.'

The poetry in some places is pretty, the sentiment is also
excellent. And can I say more? The plot is petty, the
characters without vigour, and the story poorly told. Instead
of Irene the scene seems to be laid in Arcadia, and the manners
are not so much confounded as totally lost. There are
Druids--but such Druids! O Lord!

There is to be seen no physical, perhaps no moral lesson,
though a Druid should not be a rogue--but it is not so set down
in the bond. Is this the characterisation which we have been
used to see there? To end an unpleasant letter, I must leave
to your friendship for the author to contrive some mode of
dissuading him from publishing. If, however, he is determined
to rush on the world, let him do it, in the first place,
anonymously. If it takes, he may then toss up his nose at my
opinion, and claim his w